President Donald Trump is pulling out of the world’s foremost organization for cultural preservation because he doesn’t like its perceived agenda.
“President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO—which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement shared with the Daily Beast Tuesday.
She added that Trump “will always put America First” and that his administration will “ensure our country’s membership in all international organizations aligns with our national interests.”
While Kelly didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the decision, other government spokespeople have said the president takes issue with the group’s decision to admit Palestine as a member state, its promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, as well as perceived pro-China bias.
“These claims [...] contradict the reality of UNESCO’s efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism,” the organization’s Director General Audrey Azoulay told the Associated Press Tuesday.
The United States’ withdrawal will come as little surprise to the agency, after Trump ordered a 90-day review of U.S. membership earlier in February, and given that it’s now the second time he’s pulled the country out of the organization.
The first came in 2017, when the president announced during his first term the U.S. would be leaving over accusations of an anti-Israel bias.
That decision was in turn reversed under President Joe Biden in 2023, who argued for continued membership so as to counteract China’s perceived sway within the group, and in particular the CCP’s use of its influence to downplay the contribution of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities to the repressive Asian nation’s history.
Trump’s second withdrawal is likely to have an impact on the organization’s operations, given the U.S. provides a sizable share of its overall funding. UNESCO has nevertheless said they will be able to continue even with “inevitably reduced resources,” having diversified its financing in the years since Trump first pulled out.
